Snake Causes Traffic Chaos by Flipping Switch and Turning Off Power to Stoplights at Intersection

A large snake was the culprit behind an unusual traffic jam in Prince William County, Virginia.

The wild reptile was discovered inside an electrical panel controlling the power to the stoplights of an intersection at Prince William Parkway and Sudley Manor Drive on Monday, according to Prince William County Police Department.

Because of the snake's substantial size, it was large enough to trip the breaker switch inside the electrical panel, which turned off the stoplights and brought cars to a halt, officials told the Associated Press.

Although the roaming reptile caused a nuisance, the intersection power outages didn't lead to any damage to the panel or any people. Police and animal control officials worked together to remove the animal — who was also unharmed — from the panel. The snake was later released back into the wild.

Officials did not identify what kind of snake the traffic jammer was but told outlets that it might've been living in the panel for some time because officials found molted snake skin inside the box.

Interested commenters on the Prince William County Police Department's Facebook account weighed in with various guesses as to the snake's particular breed and shared their stories about similar situations. "As an electrician, I've seen this multiple times. Snakes like to hide in electrical panels," one poster noted.

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"Crash Investigator Lewton would like to take this opportunity to remind motorists when traffic signals are not working because of a power outage or other problem (snake perhaps) and not displaying any lights, treat the traffic light as a stop sign and use extreme caution before proceeding," the Prince William County Police Department concluded their Facebook post about the surprising incident.